Citizen Patriot | Nick DentamaroDanny Hammond, 21, talks with his girlfriend on the phone as hauls two loads of corn to the Grass Lake Commodity Exchange. The weather finally started to cooperate for the Hammond brothers and they were able to finish harvesting the corn off the old golf course.

From about the time Danny Hammond could walk, he was on a tractor, said his mother, Susie Hammond.

But his passion for the farm life really took off in high school, when he started spending his free time at a dairy farm in Grass Lake.

At 16, he bought his own tractor. Now at 21, he owns his own farm of about 30 acres on the northeastern side of Jackson County.

Danny and his younger brother Kyle, 20, farm about 700 acres throughout Jackson County. One of their most recent projects was converting the former Sparrow Hawk Golf Course at 2618 Seymour Road, owned by Blackman Township resident Jack Blake, into farmland.

“They are very hard workers,” Blake said. “I think they have a really good crop. I think Danny is happy with it.”

With the help of their friend Brad Husak and Terry L. Johnson excavating company, the Hammond Brothers started removing trees from the golf course and recently harvested corn they planted on the property. The project started about a year ago.

“I just have the heart for doing it,” Danny Hammond said about farming. “It’s getting bigger.”

Of the approximate 4.1 million employed Michigan civilians age 16 and older in 2010, about 29,000 were employed in farming, fishing and forestry, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In Jackson County, the number of people employed in that field was 313, the bureau reported.

Danny Hammond said he works five days a week. Susie said Danny’s goal is to farm up to 1,000 acres.

“It’s always been a dream of his,” she said.

Danny graduated from Lumen Christi High School in 2008. “I decided not to go to college,” he said. “I decided it wasn’t for me.”

His brother Kyle graduated from East Jackson High School in 2009 and works full-time as a welder at American Tooling Center in Grass Lake.

“He’s always helped me (with farming),” Danny said about Kyle. “It’s a lot easier with two people instead of one.”

Kyle said Danny got into farming before he did. “When I get out (of work), I help him farm,” he said. “It’s just kind of been another job for me.”

Farming might not be Kyle’s full-time work, but he said he is in the process of buying 90 acres in Sandstone Township, where he plans to grow corn.

“I’ll probably own it in a couple of weeks,” he said.

However, Kyle does not plan on giving up his full-time job anytime soon.